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The warning from the Royal Mail that competition from rival delivery firms is putting the universal service obligation (USO) at risk is utterly predictable (your report, 20 November).
This obligation ensures the delivery of letters to all areas of the UK at a single price and is hugely important to businesses and individuals in rural areas of Scotland.
However, increased parcel delivery competition is naturally hitting Royal Mail revenues.
The sell-off of the Royal Mail was nothing but a shambles from day one.
A privatised postal service in a competitive market will undoubtedly put pressure on government to reduce the terms of the USO, as its competitors cherry-pick the profitable urban routes leading to a reduced service in rural and less affluent areas.
Now we are told there is a “material risk” to the USO – and that the delivery service across the UK will come under “unmanageable strain”.
Royal Mail should never have been privatised and it is painfully clear the UK government should never have sold off a valuable public asset at well below its true value, despite all the warnings about the end of USO.
We know the majority of Scots were totally opposed to the privatisation of Royal Mail, more than any other part of the UK. What we need is a postal service that meets the needs of our communities and which is brought back into public ownership.


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Twitter has opened up getting a ‘verified account,’ the ones denoted by the little blue checkmark. Arstechnica.com says that the blue check…previously the domain of celebrities, journalists, and high profile users, will be more widely available, but you’ll have to convince Twitter why they should verify your account. They plan to only give the coveted symbol to accounts that are ‘determined to be of public interest.’ If you want to apply, set your tweets to “public” and you have to fill in a form with a verified phone number, e-mail address, website, and birthday. They may also ask for a scan of government-issued ID.
We’ve reported that Nintendo’s market capitalization has doubled in the couple weeks since Pokemon Go rolled out, making them more valuable than Sony. Now, apple insider.com reports that the hot mobile game could add $3 billion to Apple’s coffers over the next couple years. If it stays hot, it could actually do much more…Candy Crush brought in $10 billion for Cupertino in 2013 and 2014 when it was at its peak.
Snapchat snapped up Bitstrips earlier this year for 100 million, and today rolled out the little comic style characters in the main Snapchat app. Businessinsider.com notes that user s will have to download the Bitmoji app separately, the feature isn’t 100% integrated in the main app as yet. Once you do that and link the apps, though, you can drop the Bitmoji stickers into chat or stick them on snaps.
Pictures have surfaced of 3 iPhone 7 models, including a Pro model. Now, 9to5mac.com reports that Evan Blass tweeted out the code names of the iPhone 7 models, and there are only two….Sonora and Dos Palos. Meanwhile, a site has examined the pictures, and the Apple logo on the back is a sticker! They also used a clone detection model to point out where the pictures were cloned and ‘shopped. It appears that the more widely rumored two models…the 7 having a larger camera opening and the Plus having the dual camera are most likely what’s coming in September.
One very hot game, and a company’s value can go through the roof. Nintendo is now more valuable than Sony, thanks to Pokemon Go. According to geekwire.com, Nintendo’s market cap has doubled in less than two weeks to over $42.5 billion. Sony is worth about $39 billion. After originally launching in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, Pokemon Go just arrived in Japan this week!
For those saddened by an article over the weekend that Google had killed their VR project aimed at Oculus Rift…take heart! Engadget.com reports that while it’s true, Google has ANOTHER team working on a dedicated headset that blurs the line between virtual and augmented reality! The headset still being worked on does not require a computer or phone to power it. It appears that it would be aimed at competitor’s headsets that focus mainly on gaming.
With all the flap about several crashes involving or possibly involving Tesla’s Autopilot, Germany is looking to pass a law requiring black boxes in self-driving cars, much like those in commercial aircraft. According to techcrunch.com, the flight recorder type boxes would record whether the autopilot is engaged, when the driver is controlling manually, when the system asked the driver to take over, and when it is disengaged. Most modern cars already have systems that record functions like speed, brake application, and so forth which police and insurance companies can tap into. If the Germans pass this law, expect it to be copied throughout the EU, an probably in the US.
On the heels of yesterday’s FCC vote to adopt new rules to guide the development of 5G technology, the White House has announced a $400 million Advanced Wireless Research Initiative. Engadget.com says the project aims to build four “city-scale testing platforms” over the next 10 years. Part of the plan is to free up spectrum above 24 GHz for the high-speed networks that are said to be 100 times faster than the 4G we use today. Both AT&T and Verizon have already announce testing plans, and there’s sure to be others to follow soon.
According to thenextweb.com, Google has a announced a new Search feature to make it easier for people in the US to register to vote and find out more about their local requirements. Just type in ‘register to vote’, and the Search will show guidelines for registering online, by mail, or in person. You can also see the requirements (such as being 18 years old and not being in jail for a felony), as well as registration deadlines depending on how you choose to register.
If there’s anything smartphone users whine about, it’s battery life. Even Facebook has an entire center devoted to running their software on older phones, to ensure a change doesn’t cause a huge battery drain. Now, 9to5mac.com has picked up a report that the iPhone 7 will get a 1960 mAh battery, up from the 1715 mAh of the 6S (which, by the way was a downgrade from iPhone 6.) Of course, it may be that the A10 processor will be more power hungry, but we have to wait until September to actually find out. No leak about the 7 Plus or Pro, but if it also gets a 14% battery bump, it would go from 2750 mAh to 3140.
With the nostalgia mania about Pokemon Go, to quote Ron Popiel ‘but wait…there’s more!’ Thenextweb.com reports that Nintendo is going to launch the Nintendo Classic in November. It’s a miniature version of the original NES console that fits in your hand! It will cost 60 bucks, and come preloaded with 30 classic games. An extra controller will set you back an extra 10 bucks. Did I mention that it’s cute, tiny, and only 60 bucks?
Samsung Unpacked August 2-Galaxzy S7 Outselling iPhone 6S; Apple’s ‘Planet of the Apps’;Twitter gets the 72 New EmojiPosted: July 13, 2016
Samsung officially announced their Unpacked 2016 event as August 2nd as rumored. 9to5google.com expects a reveal of the newest Galaxy Note 7. In the meantime, Samsung is excited to see the Galaxy S7 pulling ahead of Apple’s iPhone 6S in sales in the US…16% to 14.6%. Of course, the S7 is new, and most expect demand to pick up for the iPhone after the 7 rolls out in September. Both phones are keeping a loyal following, with 88% of iPhone users saying they’ll buy another, and 86% of Samsung Galaxy users.
According to macrumors.com, Apple has posted an open casting call for its upcoming original TV show Planet of the Apps, an unscripted program about apps and the people who make them. The show is currently looking for developers from San Francisco, Austin, New York and Los Angeles to participate. No islands are involved, unless it’s the concrete ones in the middle of busy intersections.
Unicode 9’s 72 new emoji officially rolled out today, and Twitter is getting support for them, including the creepy clown one. Thenextweb.com reports that skin color modifiers are available. A lot of computers don’t support manually typing them in yet, but you can always copy and past from places like Emojipedia. Take it easy on the clown, ok?
In what amounts to a pretty big deal, Honda says it has co-developed the world’s first motor for hybrid cars that uses no heavy rare earth metals, a breakthrough that would reduce its dependence on the expensive materials, which are controlled mainly by China. Reuters.com notes that Japanese car makers have been working towards this since China put a temporary moratorium on rare earth exports to Japan in 2010. There are caches of rare earths in the US and Australia, and the US just last year began to reactivate a mine in Southern California. Mining the metals is an environmental issue.
Honda hopes to get from 5% ‘new energy’ vehicles now to 2/3 of it’s line up by 2030.
Verizon has announced final specs for its 5G service, and will indeed offer gigabit speeds….faster than cable internet in a lot of places. Bgr.com reports that Verizon is testing in New Jersey, Massachusetts, and Texas. We’re a few years from seeing this, as federal regulators have to sign off on the specs, but 100 mbps plus speeds in your pocket will be quite welcome as soon as we can get it!
The great news for data hogs…Samsung has a 4 terabyte SSD drive for laptops. The bad news….it costs as much as a MacBook Pro at $1500! If you can slide by with less storage though, thenextweb.com says they’ve dropped the 2 TB model to ‘only’ $675, and 1 TB clocks in at $317. If you’re on any kind of budget, you probably ought to opt for an old fashioned spinning drive for these higher storage options!

domain: news


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A new study has analysed how much money users would pay in order to subscribe to apps that are currently available for free.
More than 2,000 adults were asked which services they would be willing to pay for if the company opted away from an ad revenue model.
Chicago-based marketing and advertising agency McGuffin conducted the research to place a hypothetical value on 16 of the most used free apps. Respondents also had the option to say they would stop using the product if a fee became mandatory.
YouTube topped the ranking as the most valuable app, with 72% of participants prepared to pay an average of $4.20 per month.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg has often insisted that his social media services will always remain free. However, 64% of users would pay a monthly subscription cost of $2.92 for Facebook, while 66% would pay $2.52 to use Messenger.
McGuffin also made estimated revenue projections for nine of the companies, based on publicly available data, to predict by how much their earnings would increase if they switched to premium subscriptions.
It appears as though all of them would benefit from a change of structure, with Reddit potentially seeing a 10,771% revenue increase.
On the other hand, Facebook’s revenue would only rise by 16% to $53.4 billion, suggesting that any change in model for the market leader would likely not be worth it.
Read more here.


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Tesla has warned customers that they could lose the value of their car if they use its new bitcoin-purchasing scheme wrongly.
Elon Musk, Tesla’s chief executive, announced earlier today that the company would start selling its cars in bitcoin as well as dollars, and that the deal would be rolling out across the world later this year.
While the announcement in his tweets gave little practical information on how the new scheme would work, Tesla has revealed more information about it in a frequently asked questions posted to its site, as well as a new range of terms and conditions.
They note, for instance, that the cars will still be priced in US dollars, and that the bitcoin price will change as the value of the cryptocurrency goes up and down.
But they also note that getting the purchase wrong could mean that the money – theoretically the full price of the car, which can be over $100,000 – could get lost as it moves between customers and Tesla.
To make the purchase, customers will be provided with a code that represents Tesla’s bitcoin wallet, into which the cryptocurrency has to be moved. Customers will enter that code into their wallet and give the instruction that the value of the purchase should be transferred, and the process will be registered on the blockchain, which keeps track of bitcoin transactions.
If customers fail to input that code correctly, however, then that money will be sent to another wallet, with no way of getting it back. It means that a simple typo could derail the entire transaction.
The terms and conditions warn customers in capital letters that it is “your responsibility to confirm and verify” that the code is entered correctly into the software, and reiterates that Tesla will not be responsible for any mistakes. “You must exercise care when inputting the bitcoin address into the recipient field because bitcoin transactions cannot be reversed,” it reads, again in capital letters.
A similar warning is given later in the document that customers should be careful to send the right amount of money, and reiterates that any wrong transaction will also be permanent.
Tesla also says that it will not be held “liable or responsible” for any bitcoin that gets lost because it went to a wrong address, or which is not recognised because it is sent in the form of another “digital asset”.
Because cryptocurrency is built as a decentralised system without the traditional powerful authorities such as banks, there is no way to retrieve money that has been sent to the wrong address. While all bitcoin transactions are logged publicly – and therefore it will be possible to verify where the money was sent – there is no way of getting that cryptocurrency back if it is put into the wrong wallet.
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Saint James Seafood reopens with special curbside to-go menu
Posted July 22, 2020 11:14 a.m. EDT
Updated July 22, 2020 5:38 p.m. EDT
Durham, N.C. — Saint James Seafood has reopened with a special menu focused on to-go orders.
Dubbed Jimmy's Dockside, the menu features a more casual version of Saint James Seafood's menu. Options include peel and eat shrimp, lobster rolls, fried seafood, barbecue ribs and fried chicken buckets. Orders are available for curbside pick-up.
“We specialize in seafood but not everyone eats seafood,” Kelly said. “At a time like this we need to diversify as much as we can."
For those missing Saint James' oyster selection, the restaurant is selling "Ready to Slurp" oysters by the half dozen. The oysters are vacuum sealed with crushed ice.
The menu also features a curated wine list and local beers. There are also party bowl cocktail mixes for sale, where guests just add alcohol and ice at home.
As the state continues to deal with the coronavirus, executive chef and owner Matt Kelly said he is waiting to reopen the dining room until he feels it is safe to do.
This marks the second time Saint James Seafood has reopened in three years.
Saint James originally opened in Brightleaf Square in October 2017. It closed on April 10, 2019, after a deadly explosion a few hundred feet away in front of Kaffeinate coffee shop.
After being closed for 10 months, Saint James reopened in January - only to close in March due to coronavirus pandemic.
Newly opened, the restaurant is taking safety precautions. All staff members are required to check their temperatures when they get to work and must wear makes while in the building. Each day the restaurant is also being deeply sanitized.
Curbside pickup orders can be placed online for contactless payment and curbside pickup at the restaurant.
The Jimmy's Dockside to go at Saint James Seafood menu is available from 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. for lunch and 4 to 8 pm. for dinner Tuesday through Saturday.


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The EU’s zeal for regulation can lead it into some strange conflicts. Recently it has found itself in dispute with Austrian viticulturists over a regional brand of wine. EURACTIV Germany reports.
Uhudler wine comes from the Burgenland region of eastern Austria and dates back to the 19th century, when a pest epidemic wiped out much of the European wine industry. Austrian winemakers imported pest-resistant vines from North America, instead of making copious use of pesticides, and grafted their varieties onto the new stems. This created a wine that was radically different in taste to what had been seen in Europe before.
In the mid-20th century, when it became clear that this new process of grafting was a viable solution to the European wine industry’s plight, North American vines were banned in many countries across the continent, as winemakers sought to reestablish their own European crop.
Currently, Uhudler wine can only be made in certain parts of the Burgenland and its production outside of these designated areas is prohibited under EU law, due to concerns of a phytosanitary nature. This imposed exclusivity has caused the wine to enjoy a renaissance of sorts, as oenophiles seek out unusual wines that have been made by small producers.
The European Parliament was asked in a written question last year why the ban, which lasts until 2030, is still in place, to which Commissioner for Agriculture Phil Hogan replied that wine grape classification is a competence of the member states and that no new scientific information had been provided for Brussels’ stance on the matter to change.
However, last November, some wineries received clearing notices with an imposed deadline of 15 March. Specifically, those areas that had been planted and cultivated after 2003 were affected, as they are in breach of a planting prohibition. The winemakers that have been ordered to clear or ‘grub up’ their crop have, unsurprisingly, refused to do so, as they fundamentally disagree with the EU regulation governing the production of wine.
Local authorities are expected to enforce the law and order the offending individuals to comply with the notice.
Whether this will happen, remains to be seen, as the wine sector is an important and valuable part of the region’s economy. It is hoped that the Austrian Wine Law will be amended so that the grape varieties currently banned can be reclassified as “fruit wines”.
To preserve the regional flavour that has built up around Uhudler, the European Commission has been asked to designate it as a protected designation of origin, a mark that is awarded to unique products such as parmesan cheese and champagne.
Discussions are also being held in the region to exploit the tourism opportunity that Uhudler presents, by setting up a cultural centre and wine trail, as well as organising demonstrations on how the wine is made.
A situation has therefore developed, in which proponents of the Burgenland winemaking industry are fighting against European Union lawmakers, yet on the other hand, are pursuing their help by applying for PDO recognition and funding for projects that will total €280,000.


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Morrsions posts £792m loss after £1.3bn property write-down
Supermarket Morrisons has slumped to an annual loss of £792million after writinig down the value of its store estate in the face of tough market conditions.
The struggling chain also highlighted another year of falling sales as underlying profits, excluding the £1.3billion one-off property hit,fell 52% to £345million in the year to February 1.
It announced that it will close 23 under-performing M Local stores during the current financial year, having already recently disclosed plans to shut 10 smaller supermarket this year.
The results come days before new chief executive David Potts, who has more than 40 years retailing experience at Tesco, takes up his post.
Mr Potts replaces former boss Dalton Philips, who was ousted a year after the announcement of a three-year £1bn programme to cut prices to fight the supermarket price war. Mr Phillips had led the retailer since 2010.
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Chairman Andrew Higginson said: “Last year’s trading environment was tough and we don’t expect any change this year. However, Morrisons is a strong, distinctive business.”
Like-for-like sales were down 5.9% across the year but the trend in the final quarter showed signs of improvement with a decline of 2.6%.
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- 3 ‘Exceptional’ country estate with its own airfield hits the market
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- 5 Person with leg injury after 4-vehicle crash on A140
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- 7 Town announce home friendly with Premier League club
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Morrisons said consumer confidence has started to recover but with real disposable incomes still short of pre-2008 levels the chain said customers are unlikely to return to old shopping habits in the near term.
It said: “Shopping around for the best value and shopping more frequently are trends that look set to continue.”
The property write-down stems from the company’s assessment of every store’s recoverable amount compared to its book value. Stripping out the one-off item, the profits performance was broadly in line with City expectations.
It increased its total dividend payment by 5% to 13.65p a share but warned that its commitment for this year was to pay “not less than 5p a share”.
However retail analysts at Jefferies said: “Morrisons remains our favoured UK grocer given clearly improving trading momentum and pricing position, a more attractive valuation and a superior balance sheet.”


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This Sunday (April 17) at 9PM, James Deakin will be taking out not one but three vehicles out for a test drive. He will be driving the Range Rover Sport, Audi Q3 and the Porsche Cayenne and test their road-worthiness and features.
Tune in to Drive on CNN Philippines on Sunday April 17, at 9PM to know more about James Deakin's verdict.
Twenty one years after it was discontinued, the MX-6 nameplate could be in the process of coming back.
Ford Philippines capped off November with high sales performance, further strengthening its foothold in automotive industry.
With Toyota Motor Philippines sitting for quite some time now, the Camry is set to arrive among all local dealerships soon.


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Symantec Corp. (SYMC) today announced the completion of its acquisition of WholeSecurity, Inc., a leading provider of behavior-based security and anti-phishing technology.
WholeSecurity solutions protect PCs from crimeware such as worms, Trojan horses, keystroke loggers, and phishing attacks. WholeSecurity's products leverage behavioral technology to protect users from these threats, whether they are known or unknown, on both managed and unmanaged PCs. The acquisition was announced on Sept. 22, 2005.
With phishing attacks, one of the fastest growing threats to online transactions, and the risk of zero-day threats increasing, consumers and enterprises require security solutions that can quickly detect malicious code based on the actions and characteristics of each threat, without traditional signatures or patches. The combination of WholeSecurity's behavior-based technology with Symantec's industry leading information security, availability, and integrity solutions is expected to enable Symantec to bring real-time protection to consumer and enterprise desktops.


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NEW YORK — The chill in the housing market is rippling out to the carpenters, landscapers and other small businesses that lose out when fewer homeowners are renovating their properties.
Some homeowners were already having to put off large renovations due to inflation. As prices rose for fixtures, building materials and appliances, some homeowners had to wait. Recent increases in mortgage rates have hampered the sale of many homes.
Bill Albritton was booked several months ahead to replace kitchen cabinets in Charlotte homes. But he’s seen a slowdown over the past two months.
The number of homes sold in Charlotte fell by 19% between June & July and is down approximately 21% compared to July last year, according the monthly Re/Max National Housing Report.
Albritton’s booking is made 30 days before the event, instead of 90 to 160 days. His costs have risen by over 30% in the meantime. The cost of the plywood that he uses has risen from $72 to $140 per sheets around Christmas. It has gone back down to $85 a sheet, but that’s still higher than it used to be. It is difficult to find hinges of any value.
Albritton is looking to shift to smaller jobs in carpentry.
“Instead of doing new kitchens we’re gearing up to do what we call ‘kitchen face lifts,’” Albritton said. It means replacing drawers and fronts, and working with a painter to paint cabinets. It gives “a new kitchen look for a fraction of the price,” he said.
In an attempt to lower inflation, the Federal Reserve raised interest rates. The wholesale rate is now at nearly 10% per year. Fear is that the Fed might go too far and cause a recession.
“I am very worried on the heels of the material shortages we have been battling to now look at a very possible recession,” Albritton said. He’s reaching out to other home renovation companies to partner with as one way to keep the work coming.
According to Freddie Mac the average interest rate for a 30-year mortgage loan is 5.55%. The average rate was 2.877% a year ago. Some buyers are leaving the market due to this increase, while sales of homes previously owned fell for six consecutive months. The businesses that specialize in home renovations understand this. Sellers can spend thousands to make their house more desirable to buyers. Buyers then spend thousands to personalize or fix up their new home.
The Remodeling Futures Program, Harvard University Joint Center for Housing Studies predicts that homeowner spending for repair and improvement will slow in the second half of 2022 as well as the third quarter of 2023. The center’s Leading Indicator of Remodeling Activity predicts homeowner improvement and repair spending repair spending will grow 17.4% this year to $431 billion. The pace of spending will fall to 10.1% during the second quarter, and total 2023 spending will be $446 billion.
Chris Doyle, CEO and co-founder of Billd, a construction finance company, said small businesses should be aware of what’s going on in their market and consider pivoting to different types of projects. If a small business was originally focused on building new homes, it might be a good idea to start working with renovators. You might also consider federal projects, which could be worth looking into as the residential home spend is on the decline.
“Everyone’s going to have to adapt,” he said. “Small businesses have an opportunity to adapt quicker since they’re more nimble than bigger companies.”
Daniel Edwards is the owner of a Handyman Connection franchise located in Hanover. He focuses his efforts on smaller jobs, which can cost several thousand dollars. These include building decks and swapping windows and doors. The July home sales were 20% lower in the Greater Boston Area, which includes Hanover. Re/Max data showed that the median sale price for a house was $650,000. That’s 2% lower than June and 8% higher than last year.
Edwards said he’s normally booked out three or four weeks with jobs, but lately it’s been two to three weeks. According to Edwards, customers are becoming more careful with their finances. Customers want to do smaller jobs, look at receipts and ask about the prices of materials. He said that a customer chose to install his own toilet paper holder, instead of paying someone to do it. This saved them about $25. One customer, who wanted a quote to clean their gutters decided not too fast. But while business has been slower, he says the dip isn’t as bad as he was worried it might be.
“I certainly don’t see normal July and August levels, but I don’t see what I had feared in terms of significant decline. People still want small- to mid-sized projects,” he said.
Inflation has been trying on Tom Monson’s business, Monson Lawn & Landscaping, in St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s had to raise prices — he now charges $62.50 to mow a lawn. Prices have risen from $50 Installation of sod costs approximately $1,250.
Customers who are more price sensitive have had to cut down. A customer that was originally planning to install a lawn this year decided to put it off until next year. Others have reduced their biweekly appointments for landscaping to monthly.
Curbio is a startup that provides pre-sale renovations on homes that it doesn’t charge for until the home is sold. The company operates in 52 cities across the United States, including Chicago and South Florida. They’ve also started offering smaller projects as the housing market slows.
“As the market starts to cool in some areas, there’s much more sensitivity to timelines,” said Olivia Mariani, vice president at Curbio. “Before, a homeowner may be willing to wait 8 to 12 weeks to fully gut and remodel their kitchen. Now, they’re asking for the minimum viable work.”
So instead of doing a full renovation, Curbio has begun shifting project types to more “refreshes” – like painting cabinets or refinishing hardwood floors. The previous $15,000 minimum cost for projects was dropped and 30% of the projects it has completed are below $15,000.
Mariani said Curbio’s data shows that a cabinet refresh can help raise the price of a home for sale just as much as a bigger job.
“Buyers just want a home that doesn’t require maintenance — a full cabinet redo is not really necessary,” she said.
Here are more must-read stories from TIME


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Thanks to nonstop invention and a promising future, fintech is the right sphere to invest in.
Leaders in Global finance have always allowed
of fintech as a great driving force that can change entire diligence. According to Goldman Sachs, the worldwide fintech pie can now reachUS$4.7 trillion in its worth with further than 12,000 startups in different countries, and numerous further to come.
Fintech companies are growing so fleetly because of the fat and tech- smart guests. Capgemini’s exploration has set up that nearly half of guests( 46) use services handed by three fintech companies or more; also 60 of fiscal institutions see these companies as implicit mates.
Why is this sphere thriving? It has made the expansion of capital access much easier to small businesses, women, nonages, and emigrants, who preliminarily regarded fundraising as nearly insolvable; in a way, the technologies leveled the playing field.
Enhancing fiscal data security
It’s an enormous challenge for banks and fiscal institutions to cover sensitive data. With that, there are strict data sequestration conditions, and the banks and fiscal associations are under constant pressure to be transparent regarding policy way taken to strengthen data protection. That’s why similar companies invest in fintech – they need to cover themselves and their guests from losses due to cyberattacks.
In addition to security reasons, fintech services insure accessible deals, which lead to amicable cash- inflow and impeccably smooth fiscal operations. A working cybersecurity strategy involves encryption as well as controlled security programs. These way insure protection fromcyber-attacks, as fintech makes it possible for businesses to cover all the business and minimize implicit pitfalls.
Low- cost service
Not only does fintech dramatically reduce the costs of services, but it provides great results, too. Automatization of all processes and mortal- in- the- circle computing systems allow for carrying out functions easily. Fintech companies do n’t have to waste plutocrat on archaic technologies like call centers.
They formerly have all the necessary information about the customer in case a problem arises, so they’re likely to know about it in advance, which gives fintech companies a unique capability to have a plan before it’s indeed demanded.
New fintech companies, too, borrowmulti-channel strategies and use the most advance digital marketing tools without having to pay the precious regulation costs. Compared to banks, fintech companies only face 1 of the accession costs.
Blockchain in colorful diligence
According to the World Economic Forum’s estimations, by 2027 blockchain’s net worth is anticipated to rise to 10 of the world’s GDP. About 90 of banks from Europe and the US are investing in this technology.
Cryptocurrencies have a large share in the fintech request, there are numerous startups erecting around the most popular blockchain- grounded currency, Bitcoin. currently, consumers need continued control over their finances. In the history, a system that ca n’t be mismatched, which isn’t controlled by the government and with no freights was insolvable to indeed imagine.
The app world
Digital payment is the biggest product of fintech right now, it makes up for 25 of the whole ecosystem. nearly all smartphone druggies make mobile payments; this is why mobile payments alone are anticipated to break the$ 1 trillion record in 2020.
There’s still significant eventuality for growth. Because of the high figure in deals, utmost American druggies have to lose a part of their profit. For case, a$ 100 sale will affect in$97.30 in earnings for merchandisers on average. Starbucks decided to try out a new approach to change this situation – their app gives the consumer an occasion to pay using plutocrat from their bank account or credit card to avoid freights.
The further fintech develops, the further enterprises the governments have regarding it, and the more regulations they’re trying to put, especially with the integration of technology in the fiscal sphere. This has multiplied nonsupervisory problems for lots of companies.
In numerous cases, regulations can be mischievous to growth, we could observe this in numerous sectors. They’re meant to make effects safer and further controllable, but this also slows effects down. still, the case of fintech has been the contrary so far, and the regulations led a significant acceleration in the sphere.
In order to limit the quantum of particular information that the banks have access to, the European Union has passed the General Data Protection Regulation. Some other countries like South Korea and Japan also followed the EU’s illustration.
Hopefully, you too see the eventuality of fintech now and will use this information to make a smart move and invest in this amazing sector. With its promising future, fintech is a great way to gain the maximum return of your investment.


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Weekly currency news: dollar, yen firm as global equities tank
The dollar and the yen outperformed their peers last week, with the euro and the pound falling sharply, in a context of risk aversion, as global stock markets plunge on concerns that the Federal Reserve might ramp up its rate hike path this year.
The Bank of England offered a brief respite to the pound on Wednesday with the unexpected hawkish tone of its monetary policy meeting, although the sterling gave in to dollar strength and closed the week at three-year lows against the USD.
This week we have an interesting calendar ahead, with special interest in the Eurozone Gross Domestic Product, the UK Consumer Prices Index, or the USD retail sales.
Currencies last week
- EUR/USD reversal from 1.2500 extends to 1.2200
- GBP/USD: dives to 3-week lows at 1.3800
- EUR/GBP: sideways movement between 0.8700 and 0.8900
- USD/JPY: testing support at 108.00 area
Main events this week:
The U.S. calendar opens on Wednesday with January’s Consumer Prices Index data. With the market especially sensitive about the chances of the Fed accelerating its rate hike path, a strong inflation reading might add buying pressure on the dollar.
At the same time on Wednesday, the US Census Bureau will release the retail sales data. Consumption is an important contributor of U.S. GDP and in that sense, strong retail sales figures tend to have a positive impact on the dollar and vice-versa.
On Thursday, the U.S. industrial production and the capacity utilization will show the strength of the manufacturing sector and might have a moderate impact on dollar volatility.
On Friday, we will be attentive to the U.S. housing starts figures and building permits which shows the current momentum and the near-term trends of the construction sector and might have a certain impact on the dollar.
In the Eurozone, calendar the only event worth mentioning the Preliminary Gross Domestic Product. According to the advanced estimations, Eurozone economy grew at a 2.6% pace and unless there is a relevant revision of these figures.
In the UK on Tuesday, the market will be attentive to the Consumer Prices Index. Inflation has remained well above the Bank of England 2% target rate for the last 10 months. thus another strong CPI reading would add pressure to the BoE to confirm another interest rate hike in 2018, which might offset the current pound weakness.
On Friday, National Statistics will release the UK Retail Sales, which according to previous reports might have picked up in January, the pound would need strong retail sales to shrug off the current bearish trend.
In the Japanese calendar, on Wednesday the machinery orders, a leading indicator of business capital spending that has is expected to have contracted in December, after the strong advances in the previous two months. A larger than expected decline might have a moderately positive index on the yen.


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Snooker star Ronnie O’Sullivan and former Oasis singer Liam Gallagher are both due to launch stores in Sheffield’s Meadowhall shopping centre in April.
Gallagher’s store Pretty Green has announced that its Sheffield outlet will be the 12th city that the brand has opened a store in, others have been launched in Manchester, London and Birmingham.
Pretty Green released a statement that said: “In early April, Pretty Green will open its doors in Sheffield at Meadowhall Shopping Centre.
“The Sheffield store opening is set against a backdrop of a strong established online business that has had a global following for over a decade.
“The step back into a physical retail space will allow customers the opportunity to engage further in the brand experience and comes at an exciting time, with a series of new collections set to be unveiled over the next few months.”
Ronnie O’Sullivan has announced that he will be opening a merchandising store in Meadowhall on 7 April for the duration of the snooker world championships.
The snooker world championship takes place on 16 April until 2 May at the Crucible Theatre in Sheffield.
On Facebook Ronnie O’Sullivan said: “ I’m excited to announce that I will be opening The Ronnie O’Sullivan shop again this year during the World Champs in Sheffield!
“It’s going to be bigger and better than last year and I can’t wait to show you what’s new to the store.”
O’Sullivan had a store in Meadowhall during last year’s World Championship. Which sold all of his merchandise and showed all of his memorabilia that he had earned, giving his fans a great experience.
On Facebook Ronnie O’Sullivan Shop posted a video of O’Sullivan and he said: “I will be making a few appearances at Sheffield, because I want to interact with the fans, spend some time with them and do some signing.
“I think it’s a fantastic feeling, it was great last year, this year is going to be even better because the fans are back so I am really excited about that.”
Pretty Green is a permanent store whilst the Ronnie O’Sullivan Merchandise store will only be at Meadowhall for the period of the World Championship.


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The current booking window will close at midnight on September 30, and the date for the new booking window will be announced later, which will be with the revised price.
Ranjivjit Singh, Chief Business Officer (India Business Unit), Hero MotoCorp said the production for the new Karizma has already started and they will soon commence the deliveries.
"The new Karizma XMR has already created a lot of excitement among the customers. The response has been great and this is a true testament to the trust that our customers have placed in this iconic legend. The production for the new Karizma has already started and we will soon commence the deliveries. We are confident of offering an exceptional riding experience to the customers this festive season," Singh said.
Hero MotoCorp billed the new Karizma XMR to be the most powerful motorcycle in its class, producing the highest torque. The motorcycle is powered by 210cc Liquid Cooled DOHC Engine, 6-speed transmission that comes with Slip and Assist Clutch and Dual Channel Anti-lock Braking System (ABS).
"Hero Karizma XMR will be available at current introductory price of INR 1,72,900, till Midnight, September 30th 2023. Customers can continue to book the motorcycle at Hero MotoCorp dealerships across the country or online by visiting www.heromotocorp.com or calling on 7046210210 with a booking amount of INR 3,000/," Hero MotoCorp said on Monday.
The motorcycle accelerates from 0-60 in just 3.8 seconds.
The new engine now has an increased oil replacement limit of 12,000 kms.
Hero Karizma XMR: In-Depth first ride review
Wednesday, 06 Dec, 2023
- Adani Stocks Zoom up to 20% in Best Single-day Show
Adani Group stocks surged on Tuesday, adding ₹1.93 lakh crore to market capitalization and marking their best single-day market performance, following a report by Bloomberg that quoted an unnamed official of the US International Development Finance Corp (DFC) as saying that the allegations by Hindenburg Research were not relevant.Apple Taps Cos in India, Taiwan, S Korea, Japan for Critical Parts
Apple is scouting for new suppliers — Indian, Japanese and South Korean — which can provide crucial components to its contract manufacturers in India, people aware of the matter told ET.Manipal Tech Looks to Raise ₹1,000 cr
Manipal Technologies (MTL), the largest manufacturer of banking and smart cards in India, plans to bring in a financial partner into the eight-decade-old, Pai family-owned business at a valuation of around ₹4,000-4,200 crore ($500 million), multiple people aware of the initiative told ET.
Download The Economic Times News App to get Daily Market Updates & Live Business News.
- Airlines to retain USD 5.45 on average for every passenger carried, says IATA chief
- India needs high economic growth to invest in energy transition: CEA
- RBI unlikely to cut rates before June: Deutsche Bank
- Surprise credits: Thousands of UCO Bank accounts opened around transfer dates under CBI scanner
- After Covid, return to office, performance pressure keep Gen Z stressed
- Domestic electronics manufacturing up four-fold to Rs 8.22 lakh crore in FY23: MoS IT
- Mahindra & Mahindra announces price hike for passenger, commercial vehicles in 2024
- India to be one of the rising stars in Asia: Nomura
- Adani Green Energy ranks among top 3 global solar PV developers
- 5G has reached 738 districts, around 100 million users so far, govt tells Lok Sabha


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A CEO of an automaker said that soon the automotive sector will witness a technology disruption lead by startups.
“We, as firms, know which technology succeeds and which one fails so we won’t try. But startups don’t have this differentiation and they will keep on trying each and every thing. At one point of time, the technology which would have proved a failure would succeed and revolutionise the industry. This is the disruption I am talking about.” He said start-ups will create new business models, customer solutions and technology paradigms.
Venturel Capital firms have pumped in $501 million as Seed to Series F investments in companies
less than 10 years old in the first half of 2019, as against $140 million in 19 deals during the same period last year. The investments during the first half of 2019 was also higher by 12.33 per cent compared with the entire 2018 period. Last year VC firms invested $446 million across 38 deals, according to Venture Intelligence data.
Nearly half of the money was received by trucking platforms including BlackBuck and Rivigo. This segment alone attracted $265 million across 10 deals.
Trucking industry, which has been mostly unorganised, is set to undergo a massive transformation and is at an inflection point where operators are looking forward to adopt technology and so are (small) exporters and importers. Digital trucking platforms are attracting more business in recent times.
In India, most activity has been in the long-haul freight marketplace segment with startups aiming to enable faster transactions, efficient spot pricing, standardised service levels and agent disintermediation. According to a report by Avendus Capital, while a conservative 2 per cent commission rate assumption yields a $0.04 billion market opportunity today, it is likely to grow to $0.74 billion by 2020.
This was followed by Car marketplace companies, like Cardekho, Cars 24 and others that have attracted $252 million across 11 deals. Selfdrive cars and bikes segment including Bounce, Zoomcar has attracted $164 million across nine deals.
While electric vehicles have been making headlines, this segment witnessed seven deals with nearly $151 million being invested. Some of of the major deals include Ola Electric Mobility, Ather among others.
Ride Hailing and Fleet Management segments have managed to attract $62 million (across 9 deals) and $37 million (across 5 deals), respectively during the first half of 2019.


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Atlus has tweeted a picture of a cake, which shows that Catherine moved 200,000 units in the US at launch. Earlier this week, Tim Pivnicny, VP of sales and marketing at Atlus stated that sales for the title had “exceeded” the firm’s “highest expectations,” and that it was the “largest launch in the 20-year history of Atlus.” Congratulations. Thanks. Joystiq.
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When you think about startup hubs, cities like San Francisco or New York probably come to mind. But what about Madison?
Max Lynch says he’s not surprised. After he graduated from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, he stuck around and co-founded Ionic, a company that’s helped giants like Amtrak and AAA build mobile apps.
“Because UW-Madison is ranked worldwide, it’s a top public university, you get companies like us that start here because you have the right people, stay here because it’s working out and it’s a great place to build a company, and they feel no reason to leave,” said Lynch. “So it’s really all about the University.” Read the full story here.


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content material comming from news.bitcoin.com
Cointext’s SMS bitcoin money pockets is now obtainable within the Philippines and we’ve bought the main points beneath. Additionally in The Every day on Friday, the primary Mimblewimble coin has been launched by Beam and crypto change Binance reintroduces its platform for token gross sales, Launchpad, which is able to host the Bittorrent token era occasion.
Additionally learn: New York Establishes Crypto Task Force, Novogratz Buys More of Galaxy Digital
Cointext Companies Now Accessible to Filipinos
Cointext, a platform that permits customers to switch cryptocurrency offline utilizing easy textual content messages, has launched its service in one other new market. The SMS bitcoin money (BCH) pockets is now obtainable within the Philippines, a rustic with a inhabitants of over 100 million individuals and a big diaspora all over the world.
The Cointext pockets permits anybody with even a primary cellular system that helps textual content messages to ship digital money to different cellphone numbers or BCH addresses. What’s extra, to obtain the cash, the recipients don’t even must obtain a pockets, set up an software, arrange an account or have entry to the web.
These options are behind Cointext’s rising reputation in international locations the place fashionable smartphones can be found to a small portion of the inhabitants and nearly all of telecom subscribers nonetheless use conventional cellphones. Cointext additionally appeals to residents of countries that obtain lots of remittances from overseas, from Brazil to Romania.
“The power to ship worth over SMS is tailormade for the Philippines,” mentioned Cointext founder and CTO Vin Armani, as quoted by Prweb. “Remittances are a giant a part of the financial system and Filipinos are already massive adopters of cryptocurrency, particularly bitcoin money.”
Armani added that the nation has many cryptocurrency exchanges and that “makes utilizing cryptocurrency for remittances a no brainer” because it permits straightforward conversion to native fiat, the Philippine peso. With Cointext, Filipinos will even have the ability to make cross border transfers at a lot decrease prices, compared with conventional providers.
With the addition of the Philippines, the variety of markets the place Cointext is presently obtainable grows to a complete of 39. New customers within the nation can get a Cointext pockets by texting START or SIMULAN to the entry quantity 639221101037.
Mimblewimble Coin Beam Launched
On the 10th anniversary of Bitcoin’s genesis block, a brand new privacy-oriented coin primarily based on its blockchain was launched. Beam, which is issued by an Israeli startup, makes use of Mimblewimble, a protocol that was initially developed in 2016 with the intention of each bettering the scalability of the Bitcoin community and rising the privateness of its customers. Its builders ultimately concluded they wanted to create a separate Mimblewimble cryptocurrency.
One other challenge known as Grin was the primary to begin work on a crypto using the protocol. Nevertheless, Beam turned the primary to draw enterprise capital financing to challenge a Mimblewimble coin. Grin is now scheduled to launch in mid-January, as information.Bitcoin.com reported final month.
In response to an announcement on Medium, Beam’s mainnet launch accommodates the next elements for Linux, Mac, and Home windows gadgets: desktop pockets app that features a CPU miner node, CLI pockets and Beam node. A standalone Opencl miner and a standalone Cuda miner can be found for Linux and Home windows-based programs.
Binance Launchpad to Host Bittorrent Token Sale
Binance, presently the biggest cryptocurrency change by every day buying and selling quantity, is reinstating Launchpad, its platform devoted to token gross sales. Launchpad was initially launched in August of 2017 with the Bread and Gifto gross sales. The change has simply announced that Binance Launchpad shall be that includes new tasks in 2019.
In response to the discharge, Launchpad will begin with two tasks: Bittorrent and Fetch.ai. “Additional bulletins for every upcoming challenge launch shall be made within the coming weeks,” the change added.
Verified Binance customers will have the ability to purchase the tokens utilizing bitcoin core (BTC), ethereum (ETH) and binance coin (BNB). Residents of the U.S., China and South Korea received’t have the ability to take part on account of regulatory restrictions.
Bittorrent lately introduced its new digital coin which shall be supplied by means of a token sale carried out on Binance Launchpad. The Bittorrent token (BTT) shall be primarily based on the protocol developed by Tron, which acquired Bittorrent final summer season.
What are your ideas on immediately’s information tidbits? Inform us within the feedback part.
Photographs courtesy of Shutterstock, Smartmockups, Beam.
Be sure to don’t miss any vital Bitcoin-related information! Observe our information feed any which means you like; by way of Twitter, Fb, Telegram, RSS or e mail (scroll right down to the underside of this web page to subscribe). We’ve bought every day, weekly and quarterly summaries in e-newsletter kind. Bitcoin by no means sleeps. Neither do we.
— to news.bitcoin.com


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A six-state outbreak of Salmonella linked to raw cookie dough from Papa Murphy’s restaurants has been declared over by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC reports that 26 people were confirmed as part of the outbreak, with four of them requiring hospitalization. No deaths were reported. The sick people lived in California, Idaho, Missouri, Oregon, Washington and Utah.
Traceback work by the CDC and the Food and Drug Administration found that most of the outbreak patients reported eating raw cookie dough from the restaurants.
“Of the 22 people interviewed, 17 reported eating food from Papa Murphy’s. Fifteen people ate Papa Murphy’s raw chocolate chip cookie dough or raw S’mores bars dough, and one person ate baked cookies made with Papa Murphy’s chocolate chip cookie dough,” according to the CDC’s outbreak update.
“The true number of sick people in this outbreak was likely much higher than the number reported, and the outbreak may not have been limited to the states with known illnesses. This is because many people recover without medical care and are not tested for Salmonella.”
Specific testing is required to diagnose Salmonella infection, which mimics other illnesses.
Illnesses started on dates ranging from February 24 to May 28, according to the CDC. On May 23, Papa Murphy’s temporarily stopped selling their raw chocolate chip cookie dough and raw S’mores bars dough in response to this outbreak. As of July 13, Papa Murphy’s has not restarted sales of cookie dough and is reviewing their dessert labels to make it clear to customers that their products are not intended to be eaten raw.
Public health investigators used the PulseNet system to identify illnesses that were part of this outbreak. CDC PulseNet manages a national database of DNA fingerprints of bacteria that cause foodborne illnesses. DNA fingerprinting is performed on bacteria using a method called whole genome sequencing (WGS). WGS showed that bacteria from sick people’s samples are closely related genetically. This suggests that people in this outbreak got sick from the same food.
Public health officials always advise people to not eat raw dough or batter because it contains raw ingredients such as flour, which can harbor bacteria such as Salmonella and E. Coli.
The CDC offers the following tips for the safe use of raw dough, batter and flour:
- Never eat any raw dough that is supposed to be cooked or baked.
- Always wash hands and clean and sanitize work surfaces and utensils thoroughly after contact with raw dough or batter.
- Keep raw food or dough separate from other foods while preparing them to prevent any possible contamination from spreading.
(To sign up for a free subscription to Food Safety News,click here)


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Editor’s Note This time, we want to change the way we report. We don’t want to just write an article that reveals how to get rich in the blockchain field, nor do we want to just throw an article that 95% of the projects in this field are scams, nor can we just say “those who go along with it will prosper, those who go against it will die”, so that you can come to embrace it bewilderingly, but don’t know what to embrace. In the face of blockchain, the world’s most recognized technology, we hope to do our part in the media, give full play to the convenience of access to information, and do our best to solve the common question marks in your heart and mine one by one, so as to truly understand it and grasp it. In recent times, there have been several reports that expose blockchain scams and speculation. These statements are conservative and safe, as there are indeed many bubbles in the blockchain space. But, the first thing we found out for a fact is – that’s not the whole truth. (For ease of reading, we’ve colored or bolded key logical points and essence ideas throughout the text to make it easy for you to connect the dots between previous pieces of blockchain knowledge. The essence is in the third and fourth part. (– Looking forward to starting with you, the road of knowledge about the fundamentals and essence of blockchain, and we will go a long way together.)
First, on December 7, 2017, the price of bitcoin instantly soared to nearly $20,000, a price that was nearly 20 times higher than at the beginning of 2017.
After that, on January 10, the screenshot of Xu Xiaoping, the founder of the Zenith Fund, sharing the blockchain development trend in the group of CEOs of the invested companies circulated and quickly swept the screen in the WeChat circle of friends. Among them, Xu Xiaoping’s words are thrilling: “The blockchain revolution has arrived, and it is a great technological revolution that those who follow it will prosper and those who oppose it will die.”
Previously, blockchain had never attracted this amount of attention. 2008, a paper by Satoshi Nakamoto announced the birth of Bitcoin, a digital currency, and the underlying technology of Bitcoin – blockchain – gradually came into the public eye. However, except around 2013, when Bitcoin experienced a round of ups and downs and attracted numerous fans, the term “blockchain” has not received much attention from the public.
However, this time, the situation is really different.
Bitcoin has been climbing for two years
Several interviewees believe that the blockchain has received widespread attention this time around, mainly because of the soaring price of bitcoin.
The most direct reason for the spike in bitcoin prices is the announcement of the launch of bitcoin futures by the two major exchanges in Chicago. The two major exchanges scrambled – first, on December 1, 2017, the Chicago Mercantile Exchange Group (CME) announced plans to launch a bitcoin futures contract on December 18. Within days, on December 4, 2017, the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) announced that it would launch bitcoin futures at 6 p.m. EST on December 10, to get ahead of the CME.
Once these two pieces of news came out, the price of bitcoin jumped from near $10,000 directly to near $20,000 in just half a month, almost in a straight line. It took over 9 years for the bitcoin price to rise from 0 to $10,000, but it only took 17 days to rise from around $10,000 to around $20,000.
But what does this have to do with the blockchain? “It is the high price of the currency that continues to attract more talent and money to the blockchain sector.” Cai Dong, deputy director of the blockchain industry and development forum of the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, member of the board of directors of the Linux Foundation Super Ledger and chairman of the China Technical Working Group, assistant to the president of Wanda Network Technology Group and general manager of the big data center and chief architect, told NetEase that right now, the headache for industry peers is that to do blockchain projects, if they do not issue coins, the attractiveness of talent is greatly reduced.
There is also a phenomenon – the original “coin circle” and “chain circle” almost no intersection, “coin circle The people in the “coin circle” have been mining in a low profile over the years, while the people in the “chain circle” mainly study the underlying blockchain architecture technology and scenario implementation. But now, the two circles are converging, with cryptocurrency circle people investing heavily in blockchain underlying projects and teams, as well as a large number of landing projects; at the same time, cryptocurrency circle bigwigs are also starting to enter the field of artificial intelligence computing, which also requires massive computing power (arithmetic), such as Bitmain, which has a monopoly on the world’s mining arithmetic, recently launched its first TPU tensor processor, the BM1680.
A closer look at the bitcoin price chart over the years reveals that the reason for this wave of bitcoin price increase is not simple and is not solely due to short-term hype and the stimulation of good news.
Currently, bitcoin is in its second major bull market ever, and it’s very different from the first wave of bitcoin price increases that preceded it.
The first wave of the bull market, which occurred in the fourth quarter of 2013, saw a rise in the price based on positive news from the Federal Reserve. At that time, more and more countries and merchants began to accept bitcoin. on November 18, 2013, after then-Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s positive attitude towards bitcoin was exposed by the media, the price of bitcoin stood at its first-ever high, peaking at $1,147.79 on November 30. But the good times didn’t last long, and less than a month later, on December 5, 2013, the People’s Bank of China and five other ministries issued a “Notice on Preventing Bitcoin Risks”, causing the price of Bitcoin to plummet that day. In the years since then, it has also been shaking all the way down, with the coin price never exceeding $1,000 again.
The second wave of the bull market, on the other hand, began in January 2017, with the coin price continuing to rise for another year after regaining its $1,000 high. Even after the recent plunge, the price is still above $10,000. In fact, the price of bitcoin has been on a slow climb throughout 2016, oscillating upward all the way.
The reason that caused this wave in which the price of bitcoin has been climbing – industry insiders told NetEase – is mainly the ICO. yes, the ICO that was called off by the central bank and seven other ministries in September 2017. ICOs have been called off in China, but they still exist in other countries. “ICOs never stop, they all go overseas to get it going.” More than one interviewed industry insider told NetEase Technology. A closer look at the history of ICOs, although its development in 2017The fever peaked in China in August and September, but actually received widespread attention as early as 2016. the ongoing ferment of ICOs does coincide with the higher price of bitcoin. (In the chart below, the curve looks relatively flat until 2017, but since the spacing of the vertical axis of the coordinate system is $5,000, a tiny ebb and flow is a few hundred dollars.)
And among the factors that caused the ICO to be hot for two years, technological progress is the foundation. Blockchain is divided into three kinds, public chain, alliance chain, private chain. In the past few years, the public chain of Ether and the coalition chain of Super Ledger, for example, have made great progress:
In January 2014, the Ether project was released. on March 14, 2016, the official version of Ether, Homestead, was released, marking the end of the beta version.
On December 17, 2015, the nonprofit Linux Foundation announced the launch of the Open Ledger Project, later renamed the Hyperledger Project. The project will develop an enterprise-class open source distributed ledger framework, and several IT and financial giants, including IBM, joined the project. Nearly two years later, on July 12, 2017, Hyperledger announced the official release of Fabric, its first product-level solution available for building applications.
So here’s the question, what projects have been done with the large influx of money and talent?
Blockchain is blooming everywhere
Netease Technology and EditorAi have conducted data statistics on blockchain projects that are publicly available on the network to understand the overview of current blockchain projects. Since 2017, EditorAi started to focus on the blockchain field and found that the startups in the blockchain field are mixed and the quality of each white paper varies, so it hopes to use artificial intelligence technology to assist in the rating of blockchain projects, and initially help more people identify the quality of projects by doing blockchain white paper text analysis with artificial intelligence technology.
EditorAi counted the top 1400 blockchain companies with transaction data from its BCWhitePaper.com database (excluding companies like IBM that have invested and accumulated blockchain technology but their main business is not blockchain, i.e. only startups are included), and the emergence time of the projects counted is from July 1, 2017 to January 19, 2018.
statistics show that the countries with the most blockchain projects are currently the United States, Russia, and the United Kingdom. Some small countries that are more developed in the field of finance and cybersecurity, such as Switzerland, Estonia, and Israel, also have a good number of high-quality blockchain startups due to first-mover advantages and policy encouragement. Mainland China does not have many blockchain projects, with only 18. However, if mainland China and Hong Kong are combined, there are 46, which can be ranked after Switzerland and before Estonia. (Figure 2)
By sector, the largest number of projects is currently in cryptocurrency, in addition to more projects in the platform and technology base categories. The most prominent industries in terms of applications are entertainment and banking, while all other industries are in their infancy. (Figure 3)
In terms of platform distribution, the majority of blockchain projects are based on ethereum’s smart contract technology. (As in Figure 4)
Then the question arises: Didn’t you say before that 90% of ICO projects are unreliable? Yes, but there are reliable ones among them.
It’s not easy to invest in reliable blockchain projects, and I’m afraid it’s not too much to use the description “crowded”.
The investment director of Legendary Ventures, Yang Linyuan, started to focus on blockchain startups in 2015, and soon found that the traditional venture capital approach in this field simply does not work. This is one of the reasons why mainstream investment institutions do not appear much in this field.
“Blockchain projects mostly use the ICO method to raise capital, and the pace is particularly fast from release to completion. To use the traditional VC process, from the project, due diligence to on the investment decision will be a set down at least a month, the yellow flowers are cold.” Yang Linyuan told NetEase Technology.
According to Yang Linyuan’s observation, more investors are participating in the name of individuals, the method of investment is also completely different – you have to mix circles, we have mutual recognition, people leave you a little coin, and investors almost no pricing power. He told NetEase: “Traditional investment, there is a set of valuation pricing model. But blockchain investment is not according to this set of rules, you can not invest in the project at all according to your pricing. The supply and demand relationship between investors and entrepreneurs has changed. Traditionally, entrepreneurs beg for investors, but blockchain projects are investors begging for entrepreneurs, and it is difficult for investors without resources and ability to bring value to the project to get a share.”
The next question is, are these blockchain projects just playing around in small areas, or will they enter life on a large scale and really affect everyone?”
On the eve of large-scale commercialization
The answer is the latter.
Netease Technology has learned that blockchain technology has been applied in finance, agricultural product traceability has actually landed, the future blockchain will also be applied to more areas that you would not expect.
“blockchain” this word sounds remote, not easy to understand, in short it is a distributed database technology. In the financial field of application, on the netease technology interview to understand, it can play the core role – real-time synchronization of information, this information is not bad, not missing, can not be tampered with. In this regard, micro-banking, Baidu Finance, Wanxiang blockchain have relevant applications.
Wezubank’s blockchain reconciliation system is an early case of practical application in the domestic financial sector. in August 2016, Wezubank launched an inter-institutional alliance chain, after which three banking institutions, Shanghai Huarui Bank, Luoyang Bank and Changsha Bank, accessed the system, which is mainly applied to the reconciliation between Wezubank and cooperative banks. It is a heavy workload to clear funds between partner banks, and the traditional reconciliation method is “batchVolume file reconciliation”: that is, Micro-bank and the partner bank will agree on a certain point in time to aggregate all the data of the previous transaction day and output it into a file according to the agreed format to see if the account records of both sides are consistent.
Zhang Kaixiang, chief architect of blockchain of Wezubank, told NetEase that after the application of blockchain, the project information between Wezubank and partner banks can be synchronized in quasi-real time. Up to now, the platform has been running stably for more than 1 year, maintaining 0 failures, and the number of real transactions recorded has reached a volume of 10 million.
Baidu Finance is applying blockchain technology to ABS (i.e. asset securitization, which commonly refers to selling assets that lack liquidity but have predictable income by issuing securities in the capital market to obtain financing in order to maximize the liquidity of the assets).
Xiao Wei, head of the Baidu Financial Blockchain Lab, explained to NetEase that to issue ABS, multiple parties need to be involved, including Baidu Financial, asset generators, trusts, brokerages, ratings, law firms, etc. Baidu as a technology service provider built a blockchain server BaaS (Blockchain as a Service) and introduced blockchain technology, with each participating institution in the project acting as a participating node on the blockchain. In this way, all information about the assets can be synchronized in real time to each participant, that is, each participating node on the blockchain, so that the information cannot be tampered with, and if tampered with will leave traces and be discovered by all, which ensures asset transparency.
And in Shanghai Wanxiang Blockchain JSC, blockchain technology is also applied to supply chain finance.
In 2017, Shanghai Wanxiang Blockchain JSC developed a supply chain financial services platform to optimize the receivables financing process. For suppliers, the business platform will effectively shorten the billing period, reduce financing costs, and protect sensitive information in the purchase and sale process from leakage; for financial institutions, the financial platform will effectively eliminate fraudulent trade and improve operational and risk control efficiency.
In August 2017, Xiao Feng, vice chairman and executive director of Wanxiang Holdings, specifically explained in detail to NetEase the role played by the blockchain in it. He introduced that Wanxiang Group started by auto parts, itself has an auto parts supply chain, with blockchain can avoid problems in the supply chain that originally required a lot of human and material resources to solve. For example, there is a supply chain in the production of auto parts – the host factory issued an order to the second, third and fourth-tier suppliers to break down, and then the fourth-tier suppliers will submit semi-finished products to its upper level after processing, and finally to Wanxiang to become finished products, Wanxiang then to the host manufacturer, the host manufacturer payment. All the information in between, without blockchain, cannot be fully shared. When banks provide loans to small and medium-sized suppliers, they need to conduct field investigations to understand the financial status of these small and medium-sized suppliers. But with the application of blockchain technology, there is no need for creditors to go to the company to investigate, because all the information flow, capital flow and logistics can be on one ledger, so that the bank can provide financial services to a small supplier at low cost. “In this way, the interest rate for small and medium-sized supply chain enterprises to obtain loans is reduced from 18% to 8%, and the billing period can even be reduced from 9 months to 1 month. You see how big this cost saving is.” Xiao Feng was happy to introduce.
Now this work is mainly responsible by Wanxiang blockchain CTO Luo Rongge, Luo Rongge told NetEase Technology, this blockchain-based auto parts supply chain platform is now online and running.
In the traceability of agricultural products, there are many attempts from head companies like Wanda to small startups.
Wanda Network Technology Group President Assistant and Chief Architect Cai Dong told Netease Technology that Wanda Network Technology’s Wanda deep source commodity traceability and security platform has been deployed in Sicily, Italy, which is rich in organic food production. Using blockchain technology, the platform can record information on all aspects of food production and transportation to ensure that organic food is genuine and not just “labeled” products. (Below)
In a similar vein, the startup company All-China Chain officially released its “Blockchain e-commerce for media shopping” in August 2017. Zheng Yu, the founder of the national chain, explained to Netease Technology that the difference between blockchain e-commerce and ordinary e-commerce is that the blockchain technology will be used to record the whole process of food selection, planting, spraying, fertilizing, harvesting, storage, transportation, to the supermarket and to the user, so that the information of the whole production process of food is transparent, and there will be a corresponding chip on the food packaging to store relevant information. There will be a corresponding chip on the food package to store the relevant information. The collection of this information is currently mainly by cameras and other equipment, such as the installation of cameras in the field. Zheng Yu told NetEase Technology that at present, food traceability is mainly used for relatively high-end food needs, because at the beginning, the cost will be slightly higher.
In the future, the application area of blockchain will be very wide. Baidu hopes to try the application of the field of autonomous driving, is the most unexpected.
To truly realize autonomous driving, a very large amount of data needs to be collected on the actual conditions of the road, and the car also needs to have the ability to handle each situation, which requires enough data and a good enough algorithm. Baidu is currently betting heavily on autonomous driving, and in December 2015 Baidu officially announced the establishment of the Autonomous Driving Division. But to do well in autonomous driving, the power of Baidu alone will not work, and car manufacturers need to join forces, so in April 2017 Baidu released its autonomous driving platform Apollo. if car manufacturers can share their data and algorithms, autonomous driving technology will progress by leaps and bounds.
However, the sharing of algorithms and data, the manufacturers have concerns, because data and algorithms are the very core competitiveness of each car manufacturer. Xiao Wei, the head of Baidu Financial Blockchain Lab, told NetEase Technology that because blockchain is an encryption technology, after using blockchain technology, each manufacturer can put the data into the blockchain network after encryption, and this blockchain network builds a data computing trading platform, so that each manufacturer can use all the data on this platform and can get the results they want. However, after use, the data is still there, and the people who use it do not know the data.
Xiao Wei toldNetEase, this technology is currently running through, no more problems, is being promoted to various car manufacturers, hoping to pick up more manufacturers in.
In this interview, NetEase Technology also learned more applications, please see the following table:
The actual landing of blockchain applications has long formed a trend. The most influential ones in the international arena are the R3 Blockchain Alliance and Super Ledger in the financial sector, and there are more than 10 domestic blockchain alliances. (Below)
But there is still a question: are these applications only in the experimental stage, or will they quickly enter large-scale commercial applications? Are all the basic conditions needed for rapid large-scale commercial applications in place?
The problem of the pioneering period
It must be admitted that there are still some problems with blockchain technology at this stage, and commercial applications also need many environmental fits, which all need time to be perfected and solved. However, at present, it seems that the rigid constraints are almost non-existent.
Cai Dong, assistant president and chief architect of Wanda Network Technology Group, told NetEase that he believes blockchain technology has great potential, but it can’t be said to be particularly mature at the moment, and there are still some technical problems, most notably two: one is the problem of fractional storage, and one is the problem of high concurrent transactions.
blockchain is a distributed database technology, which faces the problem of storing data in pieces in practical applications. In Cai Dong’s opinion, at present, although there are countless solutions to the slice storage, but there is not yet a reliable, of course, there are a number of temporarily available programs, choose some of the most commonly used features or scenarios to support, many cases they reduce the tolerance of malicious nodes so you can use a simplified consensus and data storage. However, so far are not the most ideal complete implementation.
The problem of high concurrent transactions, a block of bitcoin can only handle 7 transactions per second, the super ledger of the coalition chain can handle 2000-3000 transactions per second, but this is far from enough to deal with the existing peak transaction volume. 2017 double eleven, alipay payment peak reached 256,000 strokes per second, such a high of high concurrent transaction volume, a large number of related blockchain technology projects are currently trying to solve this challenge. It should be noted that in order to achieve the purpose of trusted computing in blockchain, that is, to prevent enough malicious nodes from being able to fake, the technical underpinnings of one of the most important blockchain technologies, the consensus algorithm, often involve the aforementioned two important challenges of slice storage and transactions, and speed also latency.
micro-bank blockchain chief architect Zhang Kaixiang, on the other hand, mentioned the problem that privacy protection technology is still immature. He gave an example to NetEase Technology, for example, multiple institutions on the same blockchain, transactions occurring between A and B, do not want C to know the details involving privacy. The current technology can solve this problem, but the solution is cumbersome, and the calculation speed has yet to be raised to the desired level.
Most of the interviewees agreed with Cai Dong’s view. However, Xiao Wei, head of Baidu Financial Blockchain Lab, has a different perspective.
He believes that there are no rigid technical constraints. He explained to NetEase Technology that blockchain technology has three characteristics – decentralization, speed, and security. According to the needs of the actual situation, there are trade-offs between these three, such as high requirements for decentralization and speed, security requirements are not so high. In a situation like Double Eleven Alipay, the requirements for decentralization are not high, and you can focus on meeting the requirements for speed and security. “At present, we have not encountered a situation where the requirements for all three are high, which requires specific analysis on a case-by-case basis.” Xiao Wei confirmed to NetEase.
In addition to technical issues, commercial applications, in the early stages will also encounter some unexpected problems.
In addition to technical issues, commercial applications, in the early stages will also encounter some unexpected problems.
In the tide of new retail, Wanda Network Technology Group hopes to build a shared commercial platform to break the status quo of the original different links changing hands many times, forming a straightforward chain of funds and goods through the upstream and downstream.
Cai Dong previously described this idea to the media: previously the ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning) systems of manufacturing, logistics and retail were fragmented from each other in the commodity circulation cycle, but now a new trusted computing architecture based on blockchain can be adopted to remove the established agency wholesale system in the middle from the manufacturer to Wanda. Specifically, the combination of blockchain with IoT and big data will open up the link from factory to store: the factory directs hot commodities predicted by big data to the store, and obtains logistics and storage services through a bidding model, while the store empowers POS terminal cash registers through blockchain after receiving payment, and instantly accounts receivable and accounts payable are recorded through blockchain smart contracts.
Cai Dong told NetEase Technology, this idea, technically no problem to achieve, before Wanda has already done in the four stores in Wanda Plaza, the effect is particularly good. After doing so, the original price of 399 yuan of goods can be reduced to 99 yuan. Once the user pays, the POS machine (with its integrated blockchain client SDK) can execute blockchain smart contracts to directly record the accounts receivable and accounts payable of the four parties to the transaction – the merchant, the brand/manufacturer, the commercial real estate manager, and the platform party – and the physical store lease payments and payments for goods can be made from “T+45” to “T+65”. “”T+65” “T+75” and other common accounting periods in the logistics field can be shortened to “T+1”.
“We can technically do T+1, but what we didn’t expect was that the financial and banking systems weren’t ready.” Cai Dong told NetEase Technology, to completely run through, need their suppliers’ systems also completely transformed, but apparently a moment can not be achieved.
“We are confident that because such problems will definitely be solved, more and more technical solution parties are gaining a deeper understanding and adopting blockchain technology.” Cai Dong said to NetEase.
From the perspective of more people, the growing maturity of the current blockchain technology can indeed be felt.
Liu Tong, the executive commissioner of China’s new cultural economy development standards research committee, was previously the chief architect of Cisco, and in 2016 when he worked at the China Heritage Information Consulting Center, the center had hoped to try to use blockchain technology to solve the folk heritage artThe problem of registration and filing of art products. But at that time Liu Tong investigated a circle found that the technology is not mature, each has its own technical standards, there are not many institutions capable of development, so they gave up blockchain technology, and adopted the traditional method.
In the past two years he feels that blockchain technology is indeed becoming more and more mature, and many companies have done a lot of investment and development research work based on open source and ethereum technology. Two years ago, everyone was talking about theories, and there were no products in place. But now there are already products being launched.
Currently, Liu Tong is doing the selection of cultural new economy pilot zones and pilot bases, and is also considering blockchain technology as the underlying support platform. “How to use blockchain technology to make a killer application in a field” is the most urgent problem he thinks he needs to solve, “technology is not the problem, the problem is the killer application.”
“In the blockchain field, there are ‘coin circle’ and ‘chain circle’, these two circles despise each other, who also despise who, there is not much communication. There is a reason for this. The underlying technology of blockchain is available, but it is not fully combined with specific application scenarios.” Liu Tong pointed out to NetEase Technology.
“When we started two years ago, no one had heard of blockchain, and it took a lot of effort to explain half a day. Now it’s much better, at least everyone has heard of it.” Zheng Yu, the founder of the national chain, feels that there is indeed a very big change, and he made an analogy: “Our requirements for blockchain now are equivalent to your requirements for Apple’s cell phone, we want 4G and big screen, but the cell phone was first developed from the analog machine and big brother, it is not perfect, but it will develop rapidly.”
On January 22, Xu Hongbo, the founder of Genda Capital, attended the DLD conference in Munich, Germany, which stands for “Digital, Life, Design”.
Xu Hongbo is one of the six authors of the global mobile Java standard and one of the world’s first experts in artificial intelligence and robotics, specializing in the field of artificial intelligence neural network computing. In addition, he is one of the 15 members of China’s “Nuclear High Foundation” Science and Technology Major Project Team.
After attending the conference, Xu Hongbo felt that the hottest field is blockchain, he said: “The blockchain now is the Internet in 1997 and 1998, although there are various bugs, but it must be the future!
And go and watch the sea, why not listen to the waves?


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Despite this year’s edition taking place online, Fruit Attraction remains an attractive trade fair for contacting exporters and importers of fruit and vegetables. The pandemic has not curbed the Port of Bilbao’s interest in this fair, to be held throughout the month of October, as an opportunity to consolidate its position, alongside Mercabilbao, as a hub for the import and export of fruit and vegetable products in the north of mainland Spain, and to explore new ways of showcasing what it has to offer and its competitive advantages in this market.
As representatives of the organisations explain: “We work together to increase the flow of incoming goods from places such as South Africa, South and Central America, and the reshipment of fruits and vegetables to Europe and the rest of mainland Spain”.
The Port Authority of Bilbao will showcase the capacity of the area in terms of infrastructure and services and, in particular, with the United Kingdom and Ireland, markets with which services have been stepped up and operations streamlined to meet the new demand generated by Brexit.
In 2019, traffic of fruit and vegetables through the Port of Bilbao topped 167,000 tons, 7% more than in the previous year. Once again, the main products comprising this traffic are vegetables (onions, garlic and leeks), citrus fruits, potatoes and lettuce. Among the products with the highest growth rate are citrus fruits, onions, garlic, leeks and bananas. An important fact to bear in mind is that, so far this year, the traffic of reefer containers has grown by 268%.
Advantages for Brexit
The Port of Bilbao has the necessary infrastructure and facilities to service UK traffic after its departure from the EU at the end of the transition period. The United Kingdom is its main market, with which it moved around 3.4 million tons in 2019, and operators offer excellent connectivity with British ports.
Furthermore, the e-puertobilbao electronic platform has helped simplify processes and information exchange to speed up operations through the Port of Bilbao. This platform is already used by more than 800 companies.
Since 1993, the port has also had a Border Control Post (BCP), which is still one of the most advanced among Spanish ports. It is a high-capacity facility, operational 24 hours a day with 16 lorry loading bays. The port provides the following services: a Border Inspection Post (BIP), an unloading port, Designated Points of Entry (DPE), DPE/DPI (Designated Points of Import, points for the control of food products from certain third countries), radioactivity monitoring, Authorised Customs Areas (ACA) and FPI (First Points of Introduction).
Through the virtual stand of the Port Authority at the trade fair in Madrid, both visitors and exhibitors can contact the BCP regarding imports of fruit and vegetable products through the Port of Bilbao. Enquiries should be made through the following e-mail address: administraciónfirstname.lastname@example.org


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Video: Beloved 'Lizzie Bennet Diaries' ends its run
About a year ago, I recommended a web series that was clever, original and addictive called The Lizzie Bennet Diaries. Created by Hank Green and Bernie Su, the series offered a modern-day version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice, told through confessional videos.
Today marks the end of an era as Lizzie wraps with its 100th episode:
Just how popular did Lizzie Bennet become? Well, a Kickstarter offering DVDs of the series has raised more than $300,000. (The goal was $60,000.) The first episode has been viewed more than 1 million times on YouTube. And, to fans' delight, the creators are planning to launch a new series this summer.
Welcome to Sandition will be based on one of Austen's unfinished novels and take place in a beach town "as it attempts to revitalize itself into a modern resort destination." Not much more has been revealed, but the official site teases details soon and a May launch date.


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Wigan’s Marks & Spencer store has escaped the axe - for now - as the firm announces plans to close more than 100 branches by 2022.
The high street giant has announced the next tranche of UK stores proposed for closure as it accelerates a transformation programme that will see thousands of jobs put at risk.
They have named 14 stores earmarked for closure, with a total of 872 employees affected.
Its shop on Standishgate, in Wigan town centre, was not among those set to shut.
That comes after a spokesman for the firm recently denied rumours circulating in the town that the shop was going to close and be replaced with a food shop at Robin Retail Park.
Leigh’s M&S Foodhall was also not on the list of proposed closures.
As well as the latest 14 stores named for closure, the firm said 21 had already shut.
However, the locations of the rest of the 100-plus shops under threat have not yet been revealed.
The latest closures will affect its clothing and home stores, which have under-performed for several years, and include the Fleetwood outlet.
The move is part of a five-year turnaround plan spearheaded by chairman Archie Norman and chief executive Steve Rowe.
They have been seeking to save costs through store closures and shutting distribution centres as part of a wide-ranging efficiency drive as the company’s financial performance deteriorates.
Sacha Berendji, retail and property director at M&S, said: “We are making good progress with our plans to reshape our store estate to be more relevant to our customers and support our online growth plans.
“Closing stores isn’t easy but it is vital for the future of M&S. Where we have closed stores, we are seeing an encouraging number of customers moving to nearby stores and enjoying shopping with us in a better environment, which is why we’re continuing to transform our estate with pace.”
The announcement comes before the retailer is expected to unveil another troubling set of annual figures.
Today’s results are set to show that underlying pre-tax profit across the group fell by six per cent to £573m.


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Content creator, professional gamer, and internet personality Tyler “Ninja” Blevins most recently announced his departure from Amazon-owned Twitch to Microsoft-owned competitor Mixer. A few weeks later, he has seemingly leaked a potential partnership by accident with the world’s second-largest sportswear manufacturer, Adidas.
Fans of the former Twitch icon posted on Reddit showing an upload on his YouTube channel that was titled, “Ninja x Adidas: Time In”. The video was under a minute long, and it only stayed up for a short amount of time before being taken down. Ninja last uploaded a video around three days ago; since then, he hasn’t uploaded anything. He and Adidas have released no statements about this on social media either.
Some commenters described trying to view the video but said that it had been removed before viewing. Others mentioned that there was allegedly a blue Adidas hoodie with long sleeves, along with “Ninja” written on the left side in the video.
This wouldn’t be Adidas’ first venture into esports. It currently has sponsorships with a few esports organizations like Danish team North Esports, Team Heretics, Grow uP Esports, and Team Vitality.
Ninja’s merchandise store is also currently closed behind a password wall. Visitors see Ninja’s logo and “Under Construction” text underneath. However, other than this information detailed above, we have no more details.
Tyler “Ninja” Blevins
After signing a multi-year contract with Mixer and moving exclusively to the platform, Ninja has also made other moves in recent weeks. Earlier this week, the professional gamer released his own book, titled Get Good: My Ultimate Guide to Gaming. The book provides Ninja’s advice on gaming equipment, improving in various games, and turning a passion into a career path as he did.
The former Halo 3 competitive player drew in huge popularity with the release of Fortnite. He then streamed with Drake, amassed millions of subscribers on YouTube, appeared in a Super Bowl ad, and made it onto the 2019’s Time Magazine 100 Most Influential.
With figures like Ninja coming into the mainstream media and esports becoming more accepted, what other partnerships could we see in the future? Would you wear an Adidas shoe with a Ninja design on it? Let us know in the comments! And keep up with all of the latest esports news and content here at Daily Esports.


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Home » Niels Bredick Recognized with Henry Ford Technology Award
Niels Bredick Recognized with Henry Ford Technology Award
September 29, 2021
â€‹â€‹Niels Bredick, senior solutions specialist at Sandvik Coromant, is a member of a winning team of the 2020 Henry Ford Technology Award (HFTA) for development and implementation of the Torque Monitoring of Gear Machining Process.
Ford Motor Company awards the HFTA in global recognition of technical achievements that have been implemented into Ford products and production. This award resulted from a new solution developed by the project team from Ford’s Powertrain Manufacturing Engineering (PTME) and Sharonville, Ohio facility. The overall technology "Torque Monitoring of Gear Machining Process", among various solutions, also uses CoroPlus Tool Guardâ€‹ of the Sandvik Coromant Process Control line. The system allows the company to digitally monitor a gear machining process to avoid costly scrap parts. The process generated significant savings, and after proving its value in the Sharonville plant, Ford has piloted the Sandvik Coromant solution in their Livonia, Michigan plant also.
“This highlights the power of our digital offer,” says Jeff Rizzie, vice president of digital machining at Sandvik Coromant. “It shows how we’re able to drive customer satisfaction through non-traditional solutions, as well as the dedication of our digital machining team.”â€‹


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Ford’s First Electric Car – Available In 20 Cities From Next Year
If you’re chomping at the bit to get your hands on an electric car and missed out on the first round of orders for the Nissan Leaf, you might just be in luck! Ford have announced that their electric Focus will be available in 20 cities in 2011 – Atlanta, Austin, Boston, Houston, Chicago, New York, Denver, Detroit, Orlando, Raleigh, Durham, Richmond, Va., Washington, Los Angeles, San Diego, Phoenix, and Tucson are all getting the car as are San Francisco, Seattle, and Portland (of course).
“Markets were chosen based on several criteria, including commuting patterns, existing hybrid purchase trends, utility company collaboration and local government commitment to electrification,” Official Ford statement.
The price of the electric Ford Focus will be announced in the next few months but with the Nissan Leaf coming in at $32,780 (not including the $7,500 federal tax credit), it is being estimated that the Focus will sell at roughly the same price point.
“This is the first step in rolling out the Focus Electric. As the country continues to build up its electric vehicle infrastructure and demand for the Focus Electric grows, Ford will continue to evaluate additional markets and consider making this vehicle available in more cities across the country.” Official Ford statement.
More updates as soon as they become available.


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Nintendo has announced that it is acquiring SRD Co. LTD., a longtime development partner who has worked on titles in the series such as The Legend of Zelda and Super Mario.
If you’ve been paying attention to the video game industry since late, you probably already know that 2022 is so far defined in one word: acquisition.
It started with Take-Two Interactive, the parent company behind the Grand Theft Auto series, announcing back in January that it acquired mobile giant Zynga for almost 13 billion dollars. Then a week later, Microsoft announces that it is acquiring Activision Blizzardthe company behind Overwatch and Call of Duty, for a whopping $68.7 billion, and then two weeks later, Sony reveals they are buying Bungiedeveloper behind Destiny 2, for $3.6 billion.
Nintendo revealed earlier this month that although acquisitions are happening across the industry, it will not change its investment plan. It also revealed that it is not against acquisitions it deems necessary, and that acquiring SRD is the next necessary move for the Kyoto-based company.
SRD was founded in 1979 and has worked closely with Nintendo for decades, as reported by Chronicles of video games. Not only did it work with Nintendo on Mario and Zelda games, but the studio also helped develop the Animal Crossing, Game Builder Garage, 1-2 Switch, and Ring Fit Adventure items. This acquisition is expected to close on April 1, 2022, and at the time of this writing, a price has not yet been named.
Nintendo said in a statement that the acquisition of SRD will “serve to strengthen SRD’s management base and ensure the availability of software development resources for Nintendo,” according to Nintendo. Chronicles of video games.
Today’s news about this acquisition is the first of the following Nintendo buys developer Luigi’s Mansion 3, The Next Level Gamein January of last year.
[Source: Video Games Chronicle]